Britain's migration rules are tearing families apart

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration launches an inquiry into the
new family route migrant rules today. Dr Brooke Magnanti, herself a
UK migrant, argues that the changes are anti-women and anti-family.

'Word is now starting to filter through as the first group of applicants find out their fate, that families are being split up and made to live apart. Regardless of how long they've been married before the application. Regardless of whether they have children.'Photo: Alamy

Earlier this year, I finally - after some 12 years resident and paying tax in the UK - became eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain. ILR is Britain's version of the "green card" and means that instead of jumping from work visa to work visa, I can now live here permanently and work in whichever job I like.

In the weeks running up to the Border Agency appointment we heard that changes were on the cards for family migrants (because I am married to a British man, that is the category I applied under). We didn't know when they were going to come into place. There were rumours that my income wouldn't be counted and if so we would have to settle elsewhere to live together.

Luckily for us, the changes didn't come in until July 2012 and our joint income was enough to see us approved. But for those who did not meet the deadline before the new visa regulations started, how have the changes been?A new inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, launched today, aims to find out.

The income support level was set at £18,600 - above the average income in many parts of the country - and income from the foreign spouse coming over is not counted. According to Don Flynn, director of the Migrants' Rights Network: "These measures create a two-tier system: those who are rich enough to live with whom they choose and those deemed to be too poor to live with somebody from abroad."

Don't even get me started on the same-sex couples and many others for whom "just settle elsewhere" isn't a feasible option

The new rules disproportionately affect British women, whose wages are on average lower than men's, making them less able to marry someone from outside the EU. In addition, because foreign-based spousal income isn't counted, it does nothing to address public concerns about dependent spouses reliant on their British-born partner or on the state.

The policy even gives Brits a disadvantage compared to other Europeans: an EU resident with non-EU spouse can settle here and claim "treaty rights" without ever having to go through the UKBA application; native Britons can't. Don't even get me started onthe same-sex couples and many others for whom "just settle elsewhere" isn't a feasible option.

Measures put a price on love

I wrote on this topic some months ago before the changes came into force, pointing out that while income level is of course a concern, in fact most family migrants neither need nor want to live off of benefits. It also puts a price on love: why is my husband's income supposedly an indication of how genuine our relationship is? We learned first-hand the UKBA only looks at his payslips and doesn't even ask him where we met or any of that colour-of-toothbrush stuff you think could alert them to forced and sham marriages. Why not have in-depth interviews instead of the arbitrary system in place now?

Part of the reason could be the way the current Government has decided to frame the problem. People are understandably concerned about overall inward migration because of rapid changes in society and concerns about the economy. But the Government does not propose to reduce that at all. Instead they focus on the slippery term "net migration": the difference between people moving in and people moving out. In other words, they are hoping loads of British people will leave as well. This leads to a system where monied oligarchs and predatory bankers are waved through and genuine families are forced out.

Like most family route migrants in the UK, I feel that it's entirely reasonable to expect new arrivals to support themselves. I and many others are also tired of a system that has had more changes in the last decade than Nigella Lawson has had hot dinners. By and large these changes are not keeping out frauds - they are disadvantaging people who come here ready to work, settle, and become part of British life. They are keeping husbands from their wives and parents from their children. It's a policy that is anti-women, anti-family and the British public should not support it.